News bulletin: Green Flags for Liverpool park jewels, Hillsborough report will not be published in 2022

🏞️ Sefton Park and Stanley Park have both retained the coveted Green Flag status – for the 15th year in a row – in recognition of their excellent condition.

The government-backed accolade, awarded by Keep Britain Tidy, is internationally recognised and seen as “the Oscars of the park world”.

Sefton Park, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in May with a happy birthday message from Sir Paul McCartney, is widely regarded as one of the country’s most outstanding public parks with a distinctive landscape of watercourses.

The city’s only Grade I listed Park, it is home to the beautiful and iconic Palm House which recently hosted BBC One’s Antiques Roadshow. Numerous features and facilities have been added to improve the park’s appeal over the decades, with recent upgrades to the children’s playground and a new bins.

Stanley Park, which famously sits between Liverpool and Everton’s football grounds, was designed by leading Victorian landscape architect Edward Kemp and was originally conceived as “a people’s park”.

Opened in 1870, this 110-acre green lung is renowned for its distinctive design and architecture, which includes a formal terrace with lawns and bedding displays enhanced by five sturdy gothic style shelters in red sandstone. The Grade II listed park also features the refurbished Victorian Isla Gladstone Conservatory.

🔴 The final report on the Hillsborough disaster by the Independent Office for Police Conduct will not be published before the start of next year. It's the largest independent investigation into alleged police misconduct and criminality ever carried out in England and Wales.

📝 From September, schools in Liverpool will be asked to report racist incidents to the local authority. A report from Cllr Tom Logan, Liverpool Council member for education and skills, found every school in Liverpool "has aspects of institutional racism", and leaders are "shying away" from the problem.